George Washington squash head coach Wendy Lawrence will be recognized as a past recipient of Feron's Wedgwood Sportsmanship Trophy at a Character in Sport Day Ceremony at Drexel University. The event is being held as part of the 2014 U.S. Open Squash Championships.

As former head girls' basketball coach at Riverdale Baptist High School in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, GW women's basketball assistant coach Diane Richardson gained national recognition for her team's accomplishments, which included five national championships. Last week, Riverdale recognized Coach Richardson for her exceptional coaching career, making her part of the school's inaugural Hall of Fame class.

MAISA Women's Fall Championship: "This past weekend the women's team competed at the Naval Academy for the MAISA Women's Fall Championship. This regatta was the qualifier for the Atlantic Coast Women's Championship to be held at MIT in November. We raced against women's teams from all around MAISA. On Saturday the conditions were winds coming from the NW at 10-15 mph, gusting to 20. Sunday had lighter and shiftier winds. We got fifth as a team, qualifying us for the ACC's. We're all really excited for the upcoming regattas and ACC's in November!" -Junior Hannah McNomee

MAISA South Fall Qualifier: "This past weekend, GW sailing traveled to St. Mary's College of Maryland to compete in the MAISA South Qualifier. Our expectations of heavy breeze were not met, and we were faced with a shifty breeze littered with substantial puffs. At the end of the first day, the team sat comfortably in third place overall, with A and B Division sailors both in secon. Twelve races were sailed on Saturday, leaving only three to complete on Sunday. The team faced similar conditions on Sunday, and finished the day in third overall, just points behind Georgetown (1st) and St. Mary's (2nd). This regatta qualified GW to compete in the War Memorial at SUNY Maritime on November 1-2, and we look forward to the challenges ahead!" -Freshman Roger Dorr

Jesuit Open: "Saturday morning brought strong winds and thick fog on the course. After a great set from Shira and Dan, Colin and Sam's first race in B Division saw the wind velocity and wave height nearly double. After swamping the boat with water just before the finish line, they ended up sailing backwards across the finish line into a respectable 10th to avoid taking in any more water. Racing was called off early, but the next day five quality sets were completed in breeze that lessened throughout the day, resulting in a 10th place finish." - Freshman Sam White

Each fall the GW community past and present gathers together to celebrate its annual Alumni Weekend. However, this year, GW alumni can always be found on the Mount Vernon athletics fields with the GW men's soccer team, as three of the four coaches are alumni of the program and the fourth is back for his second stint on the staff.

These men have long ties to the team and are eager to be back at GW working as a resource for current student-athletes and giving back to the program.

The GW women's basketball team turned the Tex Silverman Court at the Charles E. Smith Center into a kickball field on Thursday afternoon.

Head Coach Jonathan Tsipis and his staff decided to lighten things up a bit on the final day of the team's offseason conditioning workouts and play a game of kickball. The team begins preseason practice on Monday.

GW sailing sophomore Gabriella Malek has been named the first GW Athletics Community Service Student-Athlete of the Month for 2014-15.

Gabriella, who lives by the motto "you're never too young to make a difference in someone else's life," has carried a spirit of global engagement and service instilled in her at a young age into her life as a student-athlete at GW.

She has been volunteering and fundraising with UNICEF, the United Nation's Children's Fund, since the age of 10 when the northern New Jersey native was first introduced to the organization through her involvement in New York City-based charity Broadway Kids Care.

Since then she has devoted numerous hours to UNICEF's mission to provide long-term humanitarian and developmental assistance to children and mothers in developing countries, including a bake sale for the Pampers/UNICEF one pack=one vaccine campaign through which she had the honor to present a check to UNICEF and President Bill Clinton at the Clinton Global Initiative.

She helped set up a UNICEF club at Howell High School and now, as an executive board member with the GW-UNICEF campus club, has spent the past two years regularly volunteering with the organization in the district and completed 50 hours of community service in the first month of the 2014-15 academic year alone. Her efforts have taken her to Capitol Hill to present at The Better World Campaign's Innovation at the United Nations event, and to the British Embassy for the Girl Summit, a campaign speaking out on the issues of female mutilation and child marriage.

"I'm thankful to all the people early in my life who helped instill an enthusiasm and compassion for helping others in need," said Malek.

"This past weekend, the Naval Academy hosted the MAISA Radial
Championships for women in which freshmen Kia Olsson and Taylor Brimberg
participated. Sophomore Daniel DelBello raced in the men's Laser Second
Chance Regatta in hopes of qualifying for the MAISA Laser Championships the
weekend of October 11-12. Conditions proved challenging both days with light, variable winds and high boat-traffic that caused chop. Saturday ended with an on-shore postponement in hopes of wind that never arrived, and Sunday didn't begin until 11:45 a.m.
when the breeze began to fill in. The women sailed nine races in total
while the men accomplished eight over the course of the weekend." -Kia
Olsson (Fr.)

"The GW sailing team traveled to St. Mary's
College of Maryland to compete at its annual intersectional. Saturday
brought the triple threat of unpredictable, light and shifty
conditions, but the team handled them well against the tough competition
from nearly every region. In A Division, sophomore Brendan Shanahan and
freshman Miranda Bakos finished off the day in second place, and rookies Roger Dorr and
Belle Strachan and senior Megan Murphy were in 14th in B
Division, landing the team in 12th overall. Sunday,
after a wind delay, a southerly filled in to about five knots, and
after a couple of sets, the GW team proudly placed 12th overall in its second interconference of the season. Next weekend, the team will
again travel to St. Mary's where MAISA is holding its Dinghy South
Qualifier for the War Memorial later in the season." -Miranda Bakos
(Fr.)

Keep reading for a recap of next weekend!

From our Instagram - a snapshot of what conditions were like most of the weekend: "Glassy conditions settling in at St. Mary's. Need a little wind here!"

Sophomore Gabriella Malek reflects on the team's season goals and current success:

With
a productive and challenging season ahead of us, our team has been
tirelessly working on and off the water to make this one of our best
seasons yet.

With our season only a few weeks
underway, we've already seen how our hard work can pay off not only in
results, but also in rankings as well. For the first time in our varsity
history, GW sailing has earned a national ranking!

This
is an honor, but we've only just begun! We are looking forward to our
next five weeks which are filled with 16 challenging regattas and the
delivery of our new fleet of boats!! GW sailing will be competing in
three regattas this weekend. Stay tuned for our regatta update next
week!